Mitú is the capital city of the department of Vaupés in Colombia. It is a small town located in South eastern Colombia in the Amazon Basin. Founded in 1936, Mitú lies next to the Vaupés River at 180 meters above sea level. It is where the core of the services are provided to the Vaupés Department. The Vaupés River serves as connecting link between Mitú and nearby hamlets on the riverbanks, but there are no roads connecting the town to rest of the country. Accessible only by airplane, Mitú is the most isolated Capital of Department in Colombia.
History
The founding of Mitú can be traced to the rivalry between Brazilians and Colombians exploiting rubber in the basins and ranges of the upper Guainía and Apaporis rivers. By 1903 there was an intense activity exploiting rubber in the area around the Vaupés river using the local Indians, of the ethnic groups tucano and carijonas, as slaves. Mitú was erected as a modest hamlet in October 1936 by Miguel Cuervo Araoz. The town served as a meeting point between different indigenous communities, in addition to being a center of rubber tree exploitation, fur trade and missionary center. Its main activity was the rubber trade for food, clothing and fuel. After being for a time a township, in 1963 Mitú became the capital of the Vaupés Commissary. In 1974, it was made municipality and in 1991 it became the capital of the new created department. In November, 1998 an estimated 1,900 FARC guerrilla members of the Eastern Bloc of the FARC-EP tried to take over the town by force, against 120 National Police members and one Colombian National Army Battalion. The Colombian Air Force and Army Aviation supported ground forces with air raids. Mitú was left partially destroyed and some 60 policemen and 10 civilians died along with over 800 guerrilla members. In their escape FARC took hostages as human shields including some 40 to 45 members of the Colombian Military. On June 13, 2010, two of the hostages captured in Mitú in 1998, National Police Col. Luis Mendieta and National Police Col. Enrique Murillo were freed by the Colombian army in a rescue operation that also freed two others captured in Miraflores to the west in 1998.
